Maryland's Who's who!

[Brian Martalus]

21 hours ago, Junger said:

Took a hike from Swain's down the towpath just past the pump house. I threw a frog for a couple hours and hit any large duckweed mats with standing timber near it, and that was the ticket. Got 7 largies, with 4 of them under 1lb on the Spro Bronzeye Jr. I was skeptical about this frog because the hooks are so small, but it got the job done, but it did not last more than 5 fish before the plastic got all torn up. Best 3 over 1LB:

 

 

That’s some pretty good action. Sadly you probably wouldn’t catch that many smallmouth bass in the same time in the big river.

[pgcountyfisher]

I guess ill have to head to great falls next weekend, looks like some good fishing. 

[John Diamond]

Tom's Creek largemouth on lunchbreak   

 

 

[pgcountyfisher]

Caught two little guys out of the Wisp Pond in McHenry Maryland. Caught on a Mepps Dress Aglia #1 size, with a chartreuse dressing and a Tiger Fire blade. 

 

 

[John Diamond]

My Monocacy River drought is over...well it wasn't really a drought, but just "off" compared to a few years ago the past two seasons.  Took my daughter who was visiting from out of town, and we waded about a mile or so stretch of the upper river, starting at around 7:30 am.  It was chilly, there was fog on the river(love that), and it started off pretty slow at first.  I had her throwing a Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish the whole time, and I started off with spinner baits just to see if anything at all was hitting, seems like my plan lately.  Then I switched to using a custom made (by me) crawfish crankbait that I've been developing for a few weeks.  We were in a deep, moving hole, and it seemed like the perfect spot to try it.  Boom - first cast, caught a 14 inch fallfish.  Few casts later, bigger boom, caught nice sized smallmouth, biggest one I've gotten on that river in two years, guessing around 18-20 inches, maybe 3 lbs or so.  

 

After that we moved up the river, they stopped hitting the bigger crawfish, so I switched to spinners and Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish, and between the two of us we caught over 50 fish (maybe 1/2 were smallies, most in the 6-12 inch range).  Many of the fish were right at the edge of the river in the rocks and grass, but once the bite was on in full swing they were attacking from everywhere.  After the bite stopped, we headed out.  All in all a great morning on the river!

 

[pgcountyfisher]

Do you mind sharing where on the Monocacy you were at? I've got the itch after my friends and I caught some yesterday (only 2, but still!). Even the little one was fighting hard all the way to the boat! I'd kill for a day where I catch 50 fish in a single outing. 

[Brian Martalus]

On 9/5/2020 at 1:21 PM, pgcountyfisher said:

Caught two little guys out of the Wisp Pond in McHenry Maryland. Caught on a Mepps Dress Aglia #1 size, with a chartreuse dressing and a Tiger Fire blade. 

 

 

 

22 hours ago, John Diamond said:

My Monocacy River drought is over...well it wasn't really a drought, but just "off" compared to a few years ago the past two seasons.  Took my daughter who was visiting from out of town, and we waded about a mile or so stretch of the upper river, starting at around 7:30 am.  It was chilly, there was fog on the river(love that), and it started off pretty slow at first.  I had her throwing a Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish the whole time, and I started off with spinner baits just to see if anything at all was hitting, seems like my plan lately.  Then I switched to using a custom made (by me) crawfish crankbait that I've been developing for a few weeks.  We were in a deep, moving hole, and it seemed like the perfect spot to try it.  Boom - first cast, caught a 14 inch fallfish.  Few casts later, bigger boom, caught nice sized smallmouth, biggest one I've gotten on that river in two years, guessing around 18-20 inches, maybe 3 lbs or so.  

 

After that we moved up the river, they stopped hitting the bigger crawfish, so I switched to spinners and Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish, and between the two of us we caught over 50 fish (maybe 1/2 were smallies, most in the 6-12 inch range).  Many of the fish were right at the edge of the river in the rocks and grass, but once the bite was on in full swing they were attacking from everywhere.  After the bite stopped, we headed out.  All in all a great morning on the river!

 

Sounds like a heck of a morning! Looks like the fish are still around and will continue to bounce back in the Potomac watershed. I fished the Catoctin creek on Saturday and had hoped to get a lot of action. It was the first day after a cool front came through and it had been on low 50s at night and water temps definitely came down. Perhaps the fish were not adjusted yet as they wouldn’t chase any spinner or crank bait. Then I switched to a an UL with four pound test and 1/16 oz grub jig and bounced it around a deep boulder lined pool and got a small 8 incher and then a chunky 17-18 incher  similar to the one you caught which surprised the heck out of me for a stream that is 20-30 feet wide. My four year old got cold after a few hours as the sun went behind a hill so we called it a day. Wet wading season is coming to the end in the next few weeks!

[pgcountyfisher]

@John Diamond I quickly want to add that your crawfish jerkbait looks absolutely incredible, when i first saw it, i thought it was the real deal. Excellent job on it!

[fishwizzard]

On 9/8/2020 at 8:55 AM, John Diamond said:

 

 

That's a hell of a nice bass for the Monocacy, I have not found anything like that there in the last two years.  I wish I didn't have to deal with 459/95 to get there though! 

[John Diamond]

31 minutes ago, pgcountyfisher said:

@John Diamond I quickly want to add that your crawfish jerkbait looks absolutely incredible, when i first saw it, i thought it was the real deal. Excellent job on it!

Thanks!  It's still in prototype form, but getting closer.  I've got clear resin versions printed out now that I'm testing and painting, tweaking things here and there.  The rubber parts are replaceable, held in with tiny screws.  Still experimenting with air pockets, ballast, and lip configurations.  I've got another version that is 50% larger too.

On 9/8/2020 at 10:33 AM, pgcountyfisher said:

Do you mind sharing where on the Monocacy you were at? I've got the itch after my friends and I caught some yesterday (only 2, but still!). Even the little one was fighting hard all the way to the boat! I'd kill for a day where I catch 50 fish in a single outing. 

I'll pm you

[pgcountyfisher]

31 minutes ago, John Diamond said:

Thanks!  It's still in prototype form, but getting closer.  I've got clear resin versions printed out now that I'm testing and painting, tweaking things here and there.  The rubber parts are replaceable, held in with tiny screws.  Still experimenting with air pockets, ballast, and lip configurations.  I've got another version that is 50% larger too.

I'll pm you

Thanks for the PM, will head out there when i have a free weekend!

I honestly am speechless with how real that looks. I wish i had the ability to create lures like that! Having a few in small, medium and large would be killer in some of the areas where i fish!

Again, nice job!

[BrianMDTX]

5 hours ago, John Diamond said:

I’ll pm you

lol. Smart man! 

 

Nice brown bass! 

[pgcountyfisher]

16 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

lol. Smart man! 

 

Nice brown bass! 

Very smart man and a very kind one at that!

[Junger]

Went to Mattawoman on Saturday at 11AM with my dad. Low tide was supposed to be at around 10AM, but when we got to the dock, the water was only a few inches under the deck. I guess the water from the week's rains hasn't cleared out. Water was 73 in the main creek 71, in skinny waters. There was a kayak tournament going on and I talked to a few of them and most of them were skunked, so I knew it would be a tough day.

 

Tried the dying pads but they were submerged, and there was maybe 2-3 inches so it was too skinny to get my trolling motor through them. High tide was supposed to be at 5PM, but the water was rushing out by 3PM...I guess the tide forecast was wrong. Not a single hit on various lures, so I headed all the way up the to false channel at the head of the creek to seek some shelter from 10-15mph gusts. Started fishing grass edges with a popper and got a 4lb snakehead and a missed LMB then headed back in.

 

Not sure if I'll make it back there, but the only way I see fishing Mattawoman would be low tide on the hydrilla edges when it's not flooded. The pads are pretty much gone.

[Junger]

Made it down to Swains for a quick stogie, fish, and hike. Water seems to be leveling off, even after the rains from last week. Not sure if they're starting a drawn down or not, I'll probably check Widewater later this week. Caught 2 largies on a Rico popper. I saw lots of big bluegills, and several big largies, I'd guess 4lb+ roaming around in packs. They just ignored my popper when I threw it near them. I think once they get a glimpse of a person, they're smart enough to just keep on cruising then go for cover, but I guess that's why they're the size they are. There's still lots of duckweed in this section of the canal, and it won't be long before the fall leaves will start to fall onto the dying duckweed, making it virtually impossible to fish there.

[Brian Martalus]

Had to run down to downtown DC to pick something up from my office and stopped at the tidal basin. It was dead low tide when i got there and didn’t get any bites for two years plus hours throwing Spinners, senkos,varies jerk baits of all sizes and colors and whopper ploppers. It was the wrong tide but thought I would get at a least a blue gill as it was a nice mild overcast day and there was bait everywhere.  Just after the Tide started coming in, I had on some kind of coffee scented soft plastic cray which I left in water while I was reading a work email. Next thing I know I had this nice after deadsticking for almost a minute!

[Junger]

Go out for a couple hours at Needwood. The water is way down, about 4-5 feet. You can walk out 15-20 feet from the bank in some spots. Good time to go for a hike to see all the rock piles around the bank flats and structure around the floating boat dock.

[Nai]

On 9/8/2020 at 8:55 AM, John Diamond said:

My Monocacy River drought is over...well it wasn't really a drought, but just "off" compared to a few years ago the past two seasons.  Took my daughter who was visiting from out of town, and we waded about a mile or so stretch of the upper river, starting at around 7:30 am.  It was chilly, there was fog on the river(love that), and it started off pretty slow at first.  I had her throwing a Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish the whole time, and I started off with spinner baits just to see if anything at all was hitting, seems like my plan lately.  Then I switched to using a custom made (by me) crawfish crankbait that I've been developing for a few weeks.  We were in a deep, moving hole, and it seemed like the perfect spot to try it.  Boom - first cast, caught a 14 inch fallfish.  Few casts later, bigger boom, caught nice sized smallmouth, biggest one I've gotten on that river in two years, guessing around 18-20 inches, maybe 3 lbs or so.  

 

After that we moved up the river, they stopped hitting the bigger crawfish, so I switched to spinners and Teeny Wee Rebel Crawfish, and between the two of us we caught over 50 fish (maybe 1/2 were smallies, most in the 6-12 inch range).  Many of the fish were right at the edge of the river in the rocks and grass, but once the bite was on in full swing they were attacking from everywhere.  After the bite stopped, we headed out.  All in all a great morning on the river!

 

Really nice smallmouth and that is an insane crankbait. If you ever sell any of those pm me if you remember too, Ill put one of them to use for sure. I wanted to get a 3+lb smallmouth this year but that window is closing, and Im only gonna have a few more chances left this fall. Thats good to hear about your trip on the Monocacy, reading about the really tough and lackluster year on the big rivers last year was disheartening. Hopefully this year was good for the fish and next year will be even better. 

[John Diamond]

Sure thing, I'll probably post something once I get the lure kinks worked out.  It's still very much a WIP, some balancing issues yet.

[fishwizzard]

This is a spot I call the "Ambush Pool".  The channel in the foreground is 4-5' deep and moves very swiftly.  The large slackwater behind the rock is about 2-3" deep.  Cast into the slack and retrieve into the channel almost always results in a bite and some days you can stand there and get a couple in a row.  

 

I am posting it as yesterday was the first time in months where I got there to not find it full of swimmers.  I figured the temps had cooled off enough so yesterday I grabbed my waders and hit the Patapsco.  It was gloriously empty.  The water was chilly but still warm enough that wet hands didn't matter, which is my ideal wader weather.  The river was not as productive as usual, I caught maybe 4lbs of smallies, but in 1/4lb chunks rather than the usual 1/2lb ones.  The normally abundant redbreast sunnies were totally absent. It's still exciting that I can fish the river again, it this spring and summer all the "easy" spots were full of waders/swimmers from like 9am onward and even the hike-in spots were hard to access due to parking issues.  

[Nai]

I ended up going to a pretty big creek this morning. The first spot I tried was way different than the last time I had been there. The feeder stream coming in had a rock dam that someone made back in the spring. I hadn't been there in awhile but I'm sure it was washed out from the storms in August. There was a newish log jam that was damning up some water too, so now there's a new hole where I used to stand from. Anyways I caught a nice 1lber on a fluke, lost a little one, and caught a dark one that was about a half a pound. That was in a little over an hour in a that particular stretch. I hit two other spots, one that was only a little downstream and one way upstream. All in all a decent day on this creek as its probably my last time going there this year where I don't have to worry about the variability of colder weather smallmouth fishing. I hit a creek closer to me house on the way home. I caught a decent 1/4-1/2 pound pretty smallie and a redbreast in a bout half an hour. Ill try and see if I can upload some of the pics on here tomorrow

[BuzzRyon]

Hello everyone.  I'm new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself.  I grew up in NC bass fishing often, then moved to Maryland near the Magothy River and spent quite a bit of time targeting the Bay trolling for Rockfish, crabbing, etc., but bass fishing was always first in my heart.  When we moved to Woodbine (western Howard County) I got back to exclusively fishing for bass and am loving it.  I've been bank fishing the ponds and lakes close by (I'm closest to Tridelphia--have been fishing it often because of its proximity, and doing very well on numbers, but not so much on size!).  Will look to get another boat once we buy a home where it can be kept. This site has been a valuable resource for me--wish I would've hopped on board earlier! 

 

Brad

[AnotherInstanceOfMe]

Hello, I'm looking for a company for fishing, in you're in Carroll County and can explain some details on bass fishing feel free to contact me any time  

P.S. I have portable fish finder for fishing from shore/kayak, it probably gives some weight to my application )))

[pgcountyfisher]

Howdy gents! I'm going to Patapsco this weekend to do some hiking and will be bringing one of small rods with me to try some river fishing. We usually park at the Hilton area and walk along the river. 

 

What should I bring in terms of lures? The rod is a 5'5" with 10 pound braid. I have a ton of mepps spinners from size 1-3, ultra light rapalas, and some small lures thats look like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=tube+lures&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS807US807&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9oPrn4bHsAhWHhHIEHTvoDioQ_AUoAnoECBYQBA&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25#imgrc=iC8op2iVmE1RUM

 

I have other lures I can pack (larger cranks, larger soft plastics, frogs, jerkbaits, etc). 

 

And finally, any tips for fishing between railroad bridge and Orange Grove? Not looking for y'alls secret spots, but general things to look out for on this stretch of the river! 

[AnotherInstanceOfMe]

On 10/13/2020 at 10:30 AM, pgcountyfisher said:

Howdy gents! I'm going to Patapsco this weekend to do some hiking and will be bringing one of small rods with me to try some river fishing. We usually park at the Hilton area and walk along the river. 

 

What should I bring in terms of lures? The rod is a 5'5" with 10 pound braid. I have a ton of mepps spinners from size 1-3, ultra light rapalas, and some small lures thats look like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=tube+lures&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS807US807&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9oPrn4bHsAhWHhHIEHTvoDioQ_AUoAnoECBYQBA&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25#imgrc=iC8op2iVmE1RUM

 

I have other lures I can pack (larger cranks, larger soft plastics, frogs, jerkbaits, etc). 

 

And finally, any tips for fishing between railroad bridge and Orange Grove? Not looking for y'alls secret spots, but general things to look out for on this stretch of the river! 

What I learned that buzzbaits work pretty well, small spinnerbaits as well. Glenn has very nice video about lures for autumn, highly recommend it!